Our Rating: 75%

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Company Information and Credibility

Company Size:

Associated Foreign Exchange, Inc. is an outlier in the currency exchange industry. Founded in California in 1979, AFEX has multiple offices around the United States, Europe, and Australia, with plans to expand into Asia and beyond. The company also has dozens of physical locations in metropolitan areas like New York City, where people can walk in off the street and trade dozens of currencies instantly.

AFEX also serves corporate and even international treasury clients. AFEX is on the cutting edge of making international currencies increasingly fluid, for every financial purpose. The company trades more than $15 billion each year and employs hundreds all around the world.

On the other hand, there’s little evidence to the quality of their retail money transfer services. There are very few reviews in general about the company, which makes us believe they specialise at corporate FX, and cash currency exchanges.

The only objective information we go on the company is from Glass door reviews like this one, speaking about how archaic and non-agile the company is.

? Deutsche Bank “Straight Through Processing Award”, five years in a row

Conclusion:

AFEX is a large and varied currency transfer company. They work at every level of finance, but most on currency exchanges and national treasuries FX. One of the largest companies in the world in their niche.

On the other hand there are some negative opinions about the company by former employees, and absolutely no client reviews attesting for the quality of service they provide retail customers.

Credibility Rating

Client Feedback

Research:

Absolutely nothing we could find. We did find reviews of some of their Foreign Exchange Bureaus and it definitely seemed 31 clients did like the company (here’s the one that got most reviews on Yelp ). Nothing besides that.

We let Afex with a passing grade of 60 because of their positive cash exchange reviews. We feel they could have done very well on that perspective and perhaps become one of our most recommended providers for Americans, but sadly the firm does not seem to nurture and push towards client reviews like its competitors (Transferwise has 18,000 reviews in 5 years of existence).

Exchange Rate & Fees

Research:

Fees: Nothing is stated on the site, but we have found information (that we need to verify) that there are no fees above the $5,000 mark, and $10 per transfer below it.

Exchange Rates: We’re using our intuitive knowledge of the industry to assume Afex has the potential of offering anyone with superb rates. A company of this size, with 15Bn exchanged every year, working with national treasuries, banks, and multi-nation corporations, have very wide flexibility. With clients this size, they are presumably able to profit from even ultra-right margins.

So far, the only indication we have from retail clients is one comment on our website claiming rates were “bank-poor”. Until we find more testimony with content retail clients, we’ll be cautious and say we don’t know if the rates are any good.

Limits: Unknown but we assume they would deal with any size of transfer .

Conclusion:

Has the potential to be the cheapest bar none for very large transfers, but we have no client feedback to verify that assumption. Also the $10 fees are something we don’t like.

One of the most global companies, with most translations, local service numbers, and and local offices. Service online and via dedicated dealers. Again had the potential to get a straight 100% score if there were client reviews to attest for its service.

Global Reach Score

Additional Functionalities

Hedging & Corporate FX:

We are absolutely sure a company the size of FX, transferring as much it does, working with high-scale clients like national treasuries can supply a lot of value beyond what other companies would. One obvious thing is the fact Afex is a registered member of SWIFT and doesn’t rely on banks to transfer, so in theory its actual money moving costs should be lower and reflect in their offering.

Beyond that, the site mentions the standard stuff – Consultancy by a dedicated corporate FX dealer, spot contracts, forwards, limit orders. We were expected a lot more than that.

App:

None.

Conclusion:

Standard+ offering for Businesses (from the information they provide…), nothing for retail clients.

Special Features Score

Review Summary

Credibility Score - 85%

85%

Client Feedback - 60%

60%

Assistance & Service - 75%

75%

Global Reach - 75%

75%

Added Values - 80%

80%

Bottom Line

Mega-large USA-based company that works with large corporate clients, and even national treasuries. In theory this could be the cheapest choice for large transfers, but we have found 0 client reviews to verify that assumption, and in fact the only review we have on our website indicates poor rates. Until there's a lot more testimony online about their services, we suggest using other companies.

Hey Tony thank you for your reply! Really quite helpful as we haven’t had any client reviews from Afex until now. We will amend the review in accordance to that. Have you tried any of our top rated companies on this website?

I had the opposite experience from Tony above. We transfer Euros twice a year from US to Spain. We check with our bank’s international desk on the rate before doing, and have found AFEX to offer a better exchange rate each time. They make the process extremely easy.

Thank you Eric for sharing your experiences with us. Did you ever compare Afex to one of the other companies we have reviewed on this website? Almost any currency specialist with beat the bank rates, the question is whether the company beats them by 20% 50% or 80%.

They chased my business. Pushy and aggressive. Completely lacking in transparency in fees. Promised what it is impossible to deliver. They make you fill in the whole client application in order for you to see their proposal – then they try to pretend you are a customer so should start trading. Dodgy. Run a mile is my recommendation.

Afex customer care,, good morning… I need to find enquries about Afex transfer to Nigeria from USA.. If I may ask what are the names of the bank.the transaction might. Picked up in Lagos, Nigeria.. I want to be sure where is the Afex agent location to pick it up in, Lagos, Nigeria.. That’s all

You’re right buddy. I changed it now. Funny enough Afex Foreign Exchange has x5 reviews than Afex Group and even worse score, so no damage was done, Afex is indeed not extremely liked by its ex employees.

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